Reading Washington Irving’s 1813 biography of Oliver Hazard Perry, winner of the Battle of Lake Erie, against James Kirke Paulding’s 1816 life of Thomas Macdonough reveals how different genealogical models of American ascendancy shaped the narratives told about naval officers and in turn, how naval officers could become models for particular versions of American national identity. Biography, however, provided more than merely a glimpse of notable lives: instead, periodicals negotiated and contested ideas about American nationhood through the medium of biography, a discovery which necessitates a re-appraisal of the role of biography in the Early Republic as well as of simplifying notions about American nationalism. During the War of 1812, several periodicals turned to the production of biographies of naval and military commanders that had excelled on the battle field. American periodicals took great interest in the events of the War of 1812, providing something akin to war reportage to their subscribers. This essay argues that a close look at the relationship between periodical production and nationalist rhetoric in the biographies of naval officers printed in the Analectic Magazine between 18 suggests the contingent nature of national identity in the context of the War of 1812.
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